- Paperback
- Publisher: Avon Books (Mm); Reprint edition (Jun 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0380707616
- ISBN-13: 978-0380707614
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.7 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,204,425 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
An orange grower from Florida finds himself in trouble in Manhattan on Christmas Eve, mixed up with dubious women, small-time actors, drug dealers and killers. McBain is the creator of the 87th Precinct series on which the television programme "Hill Street Blues" is loosely based.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Not a crime novel, but an hilarious thriller; and very good at that.
Cary Grant, unforgettable in 'North by northwest', would have loved to be this orange grower from Florida, embarked in a nightmarish caper through the concrete jungle of downtown Manhattan on Christmas Eve.
Cary Grant, unforgettable in 'North by northwest', would have loved to be this orange grower from Florida, embarked in a nightmarish caper through the concrete jungle of downtown Manhattan on Christmas Eve.
Format:Hardcover
I'm a big, BIG fan of Ed McBain, especialy his "87th Precinct" thrillers, and when I started this I expected to enjoy it every bit as much as those other of his books that I've read.
Unfortunately, and for the first time with McBain,I was disappointed.
The trouble with this novel is that it tries to be a comedy in the format of a thriller.
It is Christmas Eve in a cold and snowy New York. Mike Barnes, an orange-grower from Florida, is about to go home after concluding some business in the Big Apple. He stops in a bar for a drink before driving his hired car to the airport. In short order he has his identity and then his car stolen, is implicated in a murder, is mugged, wins a load of money in a crap game then loses it all but meets the beautiful Connie, gets fingered by a plain-clothes cop who wants him to bump off a local crime-lord, is shot by a uniformed cop who thinks he is somebody else and - eventually - gets to the bottom of the whole thing, is cleared of murder and goes off into the sunset with Connie. All in less than twenty-four hours.
Sounds like a hoot and, with a different setting, might have been. The trouble is that McBain tries to apply the same tight, suspenseful methods to this comic caper that he applies to his usual thrillers, ans it doesn't work - not for me, at any rate. The novel is full of comical interludes where excitable Italian-Americans talk over and misunderstand each other, and highly unlikely episodes where Mike keeps bumping into other people - usually cops - that he has already met and who are intent on getting him to do something for them. These passages don't sit well with the structure of the fast-moving thriler that McBain excelled at; at first amusing, they rapidly become irritating, sapping the pace of the story and stretching the internal logic of the plot to breaking-point. Add to this the flashbacks that Mike (a Vietnam vet) has of his terrible experiences during the war, and you have a pot-pourri of thriller, bildungsroman and comic caper that simply doesn't work.
A shame, but an unusual aberration for the great McBain that I can easily forgive, as everything else of his that I've read has been superb. "Downtown" can go downtown to the charity shop; I'll get started on another 87th Precinct thriller just as soon as I get a moment, and forget all about "Downtown"...
(P.S. Any similarity between this review and the Petula Clarke song of the same name is purely coincidental)
Unfortunately, and for the first time with McBain,I was disappointed.
The trouble with this novel is that it tries to be a comedy in the format of a thriller.
It is Christmas Eve in a cold and snowy New York. Mike Barnes, an orange-grower from Florida, is about to go home after concluding some business in the Big Apple. He stops in a bar for a drink before driving his hired car to the airport. In short order he has his identity and then his car stolen, is implicated in a murder, is mugged, wins a load of money in a crap game then loses it all but meets the beautiful Connie, gets fingered by a plain-clothes cop who wants him to bump off a local crime-lord, is shot by a uniformed cop who thinks he is somebody else and - eventually - gets to the bottom of the whole thing, is cleared of murder and goes off into the sunset with Connie. All in less than twenty-four hours.
Sounds like a hoot and, with a different setting, might have been. The trouble is that McBain tries to apply the same tight, suspenseful methods to this comic caper that he applies to his usual thrillers, ans it doesn't work - not for me, at any rate. The novel is full of comical interludes where excitable Italian-Americans talk over and misunderstand each other, and highly unlikely episodes where Mike keeps bumping into other people - usually cops - that he has already met and who are intent on getting him to do something for them. These passages don't sit well with the structure of the fast-moving thriler that McBain excelled at; at first amusing, they rapidly become irritating, sapping the pace of the story and stretching the internal logic of the plot to breaking-point. Add to this the flashbacks that Mike (a Vietnam vet) has of his terrible experiences during the war, and you have a pot-pourri of thriller, bildungsroman and comic caper that simply doesn't work.
A shame, but an unusual aberration for the great McBain that I can easily forgive, as everything else of his that I've read has been superb. "Downtown" can go downtown to the charity shop; I'll get started on another 87th Precinct thriller just as soon as I get a moment, and forget all about "Downtown"...
(P.S. Any similarity between this review and the Petula Clarke song of the same name is purely coincidental)
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
McBain's best non-87th Precinct novel
21 May 2000
Format:Paperback
Besides the excellent 87th Precinct novels, Ed McBain has also written several crime and detective novels. Of these, "Downtown" is the best, as well as one of his best, period.
"Downtown" starts on Christmas Eve as Florida orange grower Michael Barnes, in New York on business, runs afoul of bogus cops, thieves, the mob, and a slimy movie producer. McBain piles on the action and absurdity at a furious pace as Barnes sinks deeper and deeper into the worst New York has to offer. McBain has always been adept at infusing his hard-boiled fiction with a sardonic humor that borders on the ludicrous. In "Downtown," he proves he can still walk that tightrope as he balances the hilarity of Barnes' situation with a lean, hard-hitting narrative style.
In fact, McBain's humor is so deliberately distracting, you don't realize it when he turns deadly serious. Michael Barnes may be bounced from one jam to another, but he too has a dark side, like most McBain characters. When pushed enough, he too becomes as deadly as his foes and as hard-boiled as any Raymond Chandler creation. "Downtown" is another example of Ed McBain at his best. Highly recommended.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Take this trip to New York!
9 May 1997
Format:Paperback
Reminiscent of the "Out of Towners," this business trip to New York is tough on the hero but endlessly entertaining for the reader. Definitely one of McBain's best
Gives New Meaning to "Rotten"
9 Dec 2011
Have the tapes, which were "free" at a library sale. Should'a been paid to take them for free. The would-be humor requires a laugh track. The recording includes all the "he/she said"s following each moment of dialogue from the book. Endless - and what I have is abridged. Reading the written guaranty for your latest purchase would be more entertaining. And most likely better written.
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